What’s in a name? Dartmouth Street Names of Olde

Portland Street was Front Street, Princess Charlotte Street and Hartshorne Street. At the lower Canal bridge, Portland Street followed the route of the present Prince Albert Road, and continued north to the Town boundary at Carters Pond

Queen Street was Quarrell St., and appears to be unchanged from its location of 1750. (See plan on page 80.)

Ochterloney Street was “the road from Skerry’s Inn”.

Park Avenue was Stairs Street. On early plans, the hillside near Edward Street, is marked “north range”.

Commercial Street was Rockingham St., and Water St.

Prince Street was Prince Edward Street.

Edward Street from Queen St., to Park Avenue was Prinec Edward St., but the block between Ochterloney and Queen was long known as Chapel Lane.

King Street is King William St., on some plans.

Wentworth Street was Fourth Street., Tremain Street and Fitzwilliam Street. (Lord Fitzwilliam was a member of the Wentworth family.)

Dundas Street was Fifth St., Sherbrooke Street and Wallace St. (The block from Queen to Ochterloney St., was Hawsey Lane)

Victoria Road from Portland to Ochterloney was East Street, Warren’s Lane and Wilson’s Lane.

Victoria Road from Park Avenue to Albro Lake was Commons Road and Wilson St. Near Woodland Avenue, it was Kenny Road

Woodland Avenue was Gillard’s Road.

All of Crichton Avenue was Ochterloney Street. It was earlier known as Gates’ Road, and Colored Meeting House Road (See p. 388.)

Albert Road. Parallel with Hartshorne Street, near Carter’s corner was Lome Street, or Lawrence Street. About the present Sinclair Street extension was Myrtle Avenue and east of that was Chebucto Avenue.

Pleasant Street from Burton’s Hill southeasterly was Eastern Passage Road. From Old Ferry Road to the Nova Scotia Hospital gate, Pleasant Street was also called Asylum Road.

The road from the Lower Ferry wharf, now part of Newcastle Street extension to Pleasant St., was Eastern Passage Road.

Stevens Street in north Woodside should be Stephen Street.

Maitland Street in Dartmouth was Cove Street.

King William St., is on a plan of the Tremain property 1831. It extends from Canal St., to Maitland St., and is midway between Portland St., and the old bathing beach fronting the Molasses Factory. (The whole area was later “the Hamilton fields.”)

Shore Road was Upper Water Street.

Lyle Street is marked Howe St., on some plans.

Hare Street and Mott Street were designated as lanes.

Faulkner Street should be Falconer Street.

George Street was Henry Street.

John Street was Walker Street on Colonel Dawson’s plans.

Wyse Road was Ropeworks Road.

Windmill Road was Basin Road and Windsor Road.

Jamieson Street was Mill Street.

It should be noted here that there may be some difficulty when locating premises In Dartmouth by street number. The earliest numbers adopted were in error, and had to be change This still makes a little confusion. In such circumstances, the best plan is to locate at least one property on the particular street and find out its old and new number. You then have a starter. point.

For instance:

The Dartmouth directory for 1906 gives the Walker residence at the southwest corner of Edward Street, as 58 Ochterloney Street, it is now 26 Ochterloney Street (https://goo.gl/maps/htcHLafNqUs)

The street numbers on properties fronting Alderney Drive (Commercial Street, Water Street), vary only slightly from the originals.

RURAL ROADS

In the suburbs of Dartmouth opposite Woodlawn Church there was for a few years, a signpost designating Old Preston Road as “Old Ferry Road”. It is now named “Mount Edward Road.”

This original road to Preston which goes past Mount Edward heights and the Town reservoir on Lawlor’s Hill, was used exclusively until the new Preston Road (No. 7 highway) was cut during the years that the Maroons were at Preston. As time went on, the Mount Edward Road got to be called “Old Preston Road”.

Two short sections of the new Preston Road (i.e., the present one), also require explanation. Just beyond Graham’s Corner, originally followed the hilly route of the present Lakecrest Drive and continued in a straight line as at present, up the slope pas Caledonia Road intersection.

But steep hills were a trial for lumbering stagecoaches and loaded manure carts, so in the late 1800s a diversion was made. To the south of the main route a new stretch was inserted, this became Tacoma Drive, and would be a second piece of new road to Preston.

As these sections came successively into use, properties of the abandoned portions were afterward described as being “on the old Preston Road”. That made confusion confounded. This is now obviated by the names mentioned above, and they are thus designated on the new plan in the County Assessor’s office, showing rural roads of that area.